Last Call

Conjuration

The ball hung in the air before him, its red polished surface reflecting a trace amount of light from the power globe above his head. With hardly a thought, he made it spin on an imaginary axis, to revolve at a lumbering pace. A second ball came into existence beside its twin and its revolution began counterclockwise. As the two red balls spun in opposite directions, a third came into being, this time white with a green stripe along its longitudinal circumference.

Within his mind’s eye, Galen controlled each ball with a long-practiced technique, honed to perfection. It didn’t take much for the balls to remain separate in his mind, his thoughts repeating each conjured equation for size, shape, and motion to all the objects as they spun and hovered in the air.

Releasing a deep breath, he added another equation that sent the red balls spinning in an upright figure eight while the white ball circled around the mid point. It gave the conjuring the appearance of a double handled globe when the objects moved fast enough that his eyes couldn’t differentiate the shapes. Concentrating on the white and green ball, he added the equation for color change on those for size, shape, and motion, allowing the center to fade into purple, then orange, then yellow, and finally back to purple.

Beyond the dizzying pace of the conjured objects before him, Galen accessed his ship’s scanners though the connection made by his implants, and monitored the incoming information. Internal consoles appeared beside the conjured images, scrolling information from the external sensors and the thousands of probes he had planted in various areas throughout the Excalibur. Bullet cars, corridors, transport tubes, tactical stations, and even the cleaning crew’s cart weren’t free from the nanoprobes that remained like silent sentinels over the crew.

He accessed a favored probe, giving him a glimpse into Dureena Nafeel’s quarters. Galen had placed it on the paneling above the vid console, allowing her a small amount of privacy from the short angle recording. Dureena sat in one of her low wooden chairs, sipping at a mug of tea while she read an electronic novel, using a finger to tap-scroll through the document on the palmtop. Not wanting his spying to approach the verge of voyeurism, Galen moved on, checking Medbay and Doctor Chambers before moving on to Max Eilerson.

Paying too much attention to the probes had loosened his control on the balls slightly, their revolutions and spinnings beginning to degrade. With renewed concentration, Galen added the equation for fire, giving the balls the illusion of being set ablaze. The effect was spectacular; the conjuring was almost life-like in the level of detail Galen had put into it. Each flame rippled, swirling around as the balls gyrated, engulfing till only darkened ash was beneath.

Galen accessed the probe he had placed at the foot of Gideon’s chair in command. The angle made the Captain seem huge in appearance, towering above the recording, and Galen smirked. The intercepted transmission said the same as what the Technomage had accessed through the probe; the Excalibur had finally picked up the Toledo’s signal for analysis. Galen watched as Gideon sent back a confirmation message, in hope it wasn’t too late.

“Excellent, Matthew.” The Technomage commented to the objects revolving and burning before him. Satisfied to the degree of complexity he had put into the conjuring, Galen dismissed it, releasing a slow breath from his lips across them. Gradually the image in the air disappeared like grains of sand being blown from slate till the last of the ash faded into nothing.

“I suppose now we just sit back and wait.” Taking a moment to stretch the muscles in his neck and between his shoulders, Galen closed his eyes and thought of a new object to conjure, his mind deciding on one of Dureena’s daggers.

“Yes, yes, this will do nicely.” Gradually the curved blade took form in the darkness, the light leather of the hilt imprinted with the strong grip of its owner. Keeping the point transfixed downward in his mind, Galen added the equation for circular motion and the hilt began to rotate in a wide ellipse, spinning like a top above its apex.